Hardest Final Boss

[Forsaken Lover]

For me it has to be Orphan, assuming you don't just punk it with Poison. Those status effects and that sword attack hurt.

[Wolf Kanno]

Cloud of Darkness (Famicom) is fast an hits hard. It may have only one attack, but said attack proves it only needed one.

[Lyndis Highwind]

Ultimecia from VIII. It took me sooo long to finish her. The move where she takes away your stocked magic was so devastating for me because my whole strategy revolved around having the right magic.

[Vermachtnis]

I'm also going vote for the Cloud of Darkness. Not only is she a pain to fight, it's such a hike from the last save point and that just causes unneeded stress.

[Pumpkin]

Yu Yevon

[NeoCracker]

Depends on what you mean by hard.

Just from seeing the bit where Ultimecia randomly decide who is in your party, in spite of the game making it seem pointless to keep magic junctioned to people not in your active party? Well certainly you will get your ass kicked, but that's just cheap.

FF XIII's Orphan having that insta kill move? Just straight out cheap. Protect from that and the fight is a cake walk.

Not beaten FF III so no Idea about Cloud of Darkness, but Zeroumous from IV always gave me the hardest fight.

[Karifean]

I'd say Braska's Final Aeon. If you levelgrind, pick up Anima or any of the celestial weapons it's a ridiculously easy fight, but if you don't, or you don't properly prepare and keep on top of things you can get your ass kicked really easily. Repeatedly having your whole party hit with delay, Pagodas whose max HP rise and rise if you don't know how to best deal with them... it can get out of hand really fast. You really can't afford to let yourself get caught off guard. But it's a good kind of hard, where if you mess up it's all your own fault.

Honorable mention to Zeromus who would probably take my top spot except I somehow managed to beat him on my first try. I did get disgustingly lucky though. Those Big Bangs are brutal.

Haven't played I, II or III yet.


Just from seeing the bit where Ultimecia randomly decide who is in your party, in spite of the game making it seem pointless to keep magic junctioned to people not in your active party? Well certainly you will get your ass kicked, but that's just cheap.

It's not. If your characters stay dead long enough they are swapped out so really you can fight her with whoever you want.

[Fynn]

Cloud of Darkness takes the cake, but that's mostly because you really have no means of saving between starting the dungeon, beating five other bosses, and her. So it's more like an endurance run than anything, at least in the DS version.

Can't really agree on Orphan, though. I really have no idea why everyone has such a different experience with FFXIII's difficulty, but the fight was disappointingly easy to me - and mind you, that's disappointingly easy within the context of a game that gave me no challenge at all throughout, so that's really saying something.

[Formalhaut]

The problem with FFXIII is that if you don't do any grinding or levelling up when you hit Gran Pulse, you're in for a tough time. if you go out of your way to do some missions and train up, then it really isn't that bad.

Like others have said, the worst thing about the final boss fight is the instant kill, though that only happens in the second stage (of three) of the fight. The final phase has Doom, but it isn't bad.

[Shiva95]

Braska's Final Aeon. Even after many times, it is still a challenging fight.

[Forsaken Lover]

The worst part about Orphan to me was the constant status effects and debuffing. Poison and that sword attack can kill you and there's nothing you can do because Poison will continue to drain your HP while the sword attack plays out.So basically, you are dying in a glorified cutscene and by the attack itself will just enough damage in conjunction with the drain from Poison to wipe you out.

I've beaten most FFs with little trouble. I never could beat Orphan without Poison.

[Loony BoB]

I'll ignore FFXIV and say that the final boss I probably had most trouble with in FF's was that of FFII. And even that wasn't a big deal once I leveled up a little. With FF games it really depends on how overpowered you like to level your characters so it's really tough to say any of them are notably hard. I'd say Orphan because there are limits to how much you can OP your characters, unlike all the other games. If your argument to that is "So don't overpower your characters" then I will just say that makes the argument moot because you can artificially increase/decrease the difficulty of every single FF final boss by simply leveling your character to suit.

If you include FFXIV, and count the various different final bosses there have been, my understanding is that when synced and at minimum iLvl then Bahamut is one of the hardest final bosses anyone has faced. Haven't tried much genuinely tough content in FFXIV, personally, though. I understand Savage Coil is still a nightmare even for level 60s (it's level 50 content).

[Wolf Kanno]

I feel like the leveling argument still holds true for the earlier games, maybe not FFII so much, but FFIII and IV specifically since leveling is a mind-numbing task in those games once you reach what the developers felt was an "optimal" level. Not to mention in FFIV's case, levels past 70 randomize your stat gains and can actually lower your characters stats, meaning a Lv. 99 Cecil can potentially be weaker than his Level 70 version. In FFIII's case, your Job Class is often just as important as your level. A classic team of Warrior, Black and White mage with either a thief or Monk, even at maxed levels and the best gear they could have, would probably lose to Cloud of Darkness fairly quickly.

With FFV and beyond, the games became more about the customization systems so levels are irrelevant and starting with FFVII, getting to level 99/100 is hardly the chore it was to max out characters in the first four games, but it also lessens their importance. Leveling to conquer a villain works better in series like Dragon Quest than FF, since gameplay mechanics are what usually lead to quick victories. Fighting Kefka and Sephiroth with a maxed level party but without magic/materia/endgame gear can still be a tough fight for the player whereas a level 40-50 team with all the broken spells, abilities, and gear can destroy them in one round. It's why the Orphan is tough argument is kind of hollow because it's rather well known that Poison makes him your bitch and at that point you can basically crush him with a team that doesn't even bother with half the Paradigm roles. He's a bitch without the poison strategy, but you can make the same argument about most of the FF bosses, once you drop the broken spells and abilities, suddenly they become a bit more menacing, even with high levels.

[Depression Moon]

Yu Yevon

the troll in here.

[Galuf]

Hmm...
well.
Even on gba. Emperor mateus absorb attack was annoying as fuck. But it was easily remedied.

cloud of darkness... omg... flarewave. That thing does like 1000-2000 to the whole team. And cure 4 only heals like 500. I mean... ive only beat 3 once but it was using save states in the final dungeon. And then... by a kitten tail did I kill the beast.

ffiv. Hmm. Well zeromus was tough. But after a few kills he is easy.

ffv. Neo exdeath is pretty damaging. I hope to kill him with a less cheap tactic this turn around though.

ffvi. Kefka isnt really hard.
ffvii same with sephi.
ffviii same with ulty.
ffix ooft that grand cross is a bitch.
ffx jecht is tough but no as much as neo exdeath cloud of darkness and necron.
ffxii. See other thread. He is pish.
ffxiii orphan is pretty tough but like zeromus gets easier the morr you play I think.
Jet bahamut and his goons is actually pretty hard too.
bhunivelze I dont remember much except from it taking forever.


so far. My vote is cloud of darkness.

[Loony BoB]

Probably worth noting as a sidenote to my previous post that I've never fought the bosses of III & IV.